Mother Cluckin' Homestead

10/11/2026

More of this weeks saga.

TLDR: Moma went broody and chicks hatched, caught one on video! Have a better day because you saw a chick hatch.

The other morning I was milling about the yard. I SWORE I kept hearing chicks, but we dont keep chicks outside, maybe wild birds I told myself.

But something in me kept telling me to go find the chick noise..... so I did. Of course I had to walk past the geese who LOVE to talk to us so it made it extremely difficult to hear the little chicks. So I eagle ear in and between the geese honks can still hear chicks.

Well I find this hen in my flower pots, and what do I see, a little chick burrowed in her chest. Of course.... so I gently lift her chest to assess the situation, see three chicks, one zipping and about a dozen more eggs under her. Momma Chicken is already doing her thing so I leave her be, likely doing anything extra at this point would be detremental. Still time to warm up the hatcher.

Plug one in and go about afternoon chores. I smell something hot while Im working and go to the hatcher and put my hand on it, well thats unusally hot, then I realize the fan is not moving so all the heat its generating is just sitting there, quickly unplug it and move it outside and plug the other lid in to warm. Thankfully this one is functioning.

Well we keep an eye out and let mom and chicks do their thing. Finally in the afternoon I see mom leaving the nest. So I scoop her and 5 chicks up and move them closer to the door by the chick room. I took all the other eggs from the nest and went quickly to the warmed hatcher. I hear peeping from eggs so I know there is some active hatching.

Get all the eggs in and start quickly candeling, taking the time now while they are already a little cool and in not perfect conditions is better than inducing more stress later as they stabilize. Toss 10 eggs that arent developing and leave 3 behind, was was internally pipped and the other 2 were developing still and appeared no more than a week behind. Thats all I needed to know and shut the lid and let them be. The next day the one chick who had been internally pipped during the move hatched perfectly. Took it to mom mostly dry and she instantly accepted it- sigh of relief.

Today I go in to do morning chores in the chick room, starting with candeling the last two eggs. Much to my surprise one was zipping and the other was externally pipping! I was fortunate enough to get this video!!

Mom chicken will hopefully have 7-8 healthy chicks!! She has a nice little chick mom home inside to take care of her babies, especially while storms pass today.

Enjoy watching a baby chick hatch on this rainy day.

10/10/2026

Go get the best barrels around!!

Here at Gilmans Farm & feed for the 2nd Saturday of the month swap, small little setup today. I have a little bit of everything here, come on by! Here til noonish probably

10/10/2026

I guess its time for a little more of this weeks saga.

Back in the end of August we faced a series of predator attacks. We lost several of our best chickens. Our purbreds, the darn things were going over the hybrid coop to the purebred coop, in total we lost 8 hens. But 1 survived. We dubbed her Hennifer- she had earned a name in our book.

Something bit her on the head including across her eyes. We have been tending to her wounds ever since. Daily cleanings, removing puss, etc. She is a fighter and had been healing really well. I was almost positive she lost her right eye, but we were still in a healing phase.

On tuesday I went to clean her up and her eye started to get black and slimy and smelly. I was extremly concerned about gangreen and her getting a systemic infection.

I tried one animal hospital and they wouldnt help me, the front desk lady was rude and lied straight to my face about how Care Credit works, all she had to do was say it was a clinic/office policy but she hid behind Care Credit instead. I left there in absolute tears.

Hennifer had come a long way, I couldnt loose her to a secondary infection. I called my sister, and she helped me find Lipstock Animal Hospital and they were so kind, got us in that day, and the vet was absolutely amazing. He took the time to help me clean her eye socket and we were able to confirm that the actual eye globe had in fact been punctured and was receeding.

Not only did he treat Hennifer and send her home with meds, he took the time to teach me things, he took the time to talk to my sister (who knows way more than I do) and ran through everything again. From the moment I called them the first time everyone was extremely kind and reassuring.

Hennifer is doing much better and the meds are helping her finish up the healing process, shes made we are still doing daily rinses and mom makes her eat a nasty pill, but I am so relieved we are heading in the right direction.

We might have to rename her with a pirate name!

Pictures from attack through yesterday.

10/09/2026

So one of the parts of the sagas, might as well share in bits and pieces.

Back in March I won a giveaway from Sunrise Silkie Farm and I was stupid excited. Gorgeous silkies!! 2 dozen hatching eggs! Eggs I wouldnt be able to afford for a long time. Just uber excited.

Ive been working on the silkies I have and picking through the flock with these eggs in mind.

Ever so patiently, and at times impatiently, waiting hahaha

I raise and breed chickens and as many of you saw, I reorganized my pens, waited two months to even test any eggs, and the week I started testing most everyone went into molt. It really killed our season, but what can ya do, they are animals, I cant tell them to just not molt, or to make sure to lay me an egg everyday lol.

So with every check in, I understood. I understood birds laying erratically, I understood molting, I understood sometimes things just happen, I understood sometimes someone just needs to make changes. None of this I will ever hold against a breeder.

Well on Sunday, part of our 7 hour adventure was to go an pick up my giveaway eggs!!! They were always super responsive and provided great communication and made it super easy to do the pick up!! We even got a cute little chicky squishy, which of course Lilli immediately claimed haha.

The eggs were packaged amazingly and I could tell she took the time and care to package them well for the ride home!

They have been put in the incubator and I CAN NOT wait to see how many and what colors hatch, its like yule has come early haha! So thankful for the opportunity to have eggs I was never going to be able to buy, and so thankful that these will help me really grow a silkie flock I love!

While we were up north we also did an egg trade with Anderson Run Farm! We were able to get some things we didnt have but more importantly we got to give them eggs to take their flock to another level too!

We have a homestead friend who lost her chicks last week in a situation that was not their fault and some of those eggs we got from Anderson Run Farm went to her, and we also gave her some eggs from our pens to have the opportunity to hatch again and get her little flock going before it gets too cold!

We also had to replace our Sire in our BCM/FBCM/F1 coop and were able to snag a GORGEOUS corckerel from Rooster Cat Hatchery on this trip too! After our incubator malfunction in May, we didnt have any grow outs from the eggs we hatched. Rooster Cat didnt hesitate to help me out to make sure we didnt loose the ability to breed another one of our foundational line coops. I am deeply thankful to them for having our backs and their immense kindness as well as being so dedicated to the quality they uphold!

One of the things I love about what we do and the community we are a part of is lifting each other up! Providing oppotunity for others, a chance to truely connect on another level with someone doing the same things as you, the opportunity to help people keep moving forward, and the opportunity to just share the love that is poultry keeping.

Our Sunrise Silkie, Anderson Run Farm, and some of our own eggs went right into the incubator!!

Cant wait for this hatch yall! Keep an eye out for updates!!

10/08/2026

I could write novels about this past week..... and at some point I will sit down long enough to share the saga with you all.

Everyone is ok, in fact I think we are all better for all the events that have unfolded.

For now enjoy a picture of this beautiful little chick we hatched and Alainn asking me why I am holding her chicks......

10/06/2026

It has been a really hard 36 hours for us.

We are at the beach today celebrating Codys birthday!

We will not be replying to any messges or doing buisness stuff today.

Thanks for your patience.

10/05/2026

This cuckoo satin cockerel we hatched was feeling photogenic this morning!!

I want to see your cuckoo satins and silkies!!

10/05/2026

Its been a loooonnngggg day!

Morning in the rain and a 7 hour adventure after that.

Ill update yall tomorrow!!!

For now its time to rest and relax!!